For future generations connected to their Country with access to education 'both ways'
Education underpins individual, family and community development with myriad benefits to health, social mobility, employment, economic growth and equality. It is a basic human right which has been foundational to the international development agenda for decades. At a global level, education also has cascading positive impacts on mitigating climate change and nature loss. As a wealthy developed nation with compulsory education, every child in Australia should have access to quality, full-time teaching.
The Northern Territory has the lowest proportion of students meeting minimum standards for literacy and numeracy, and only around 40 per cent of First Nations children here achieve Year 12 or equivalent. Australia is failing to provide adequate education to First Nations children.
The homeland communities that house ranger bases are usually very remote and too small to qualify for full-time government education. At best, school may consist of one day of fly-in/fly-out teaching per week and sometimes months of no teaching at all. This means that families are forced to choose between (a) living and working together on their ancestral homelands without full-time education, (b) moving away to local townships where school attendance rates and employment opportunities are low, or (c) sending children away to boarding schools where important cultural and ecological knowledge cannot be passed down. Elders are desperate to see the next generation being educated on their homelands, in both local Indigenous ecological knowledge and the Australian Curriculum, so they grow up strong in both worlds.
In response, KKT has backed the movement for bi-cultural, on-Country education in Arnhem Land. This involves early learners to high school students regularly spending time on Country with Elders, rangers, and community leaders. Contextually appropriate content can then be incorporated back into the Australian Curriculum, for an engaging and place-based school experience with proven results.
